The Massachusetts Poetry Festival 2016

Bound for a Nantucket whaler, Ishmael states, “Whenever it is a damp, drizzly, November in my soul..then I account it is high time to get to water as soon as I can.” In this workshop we will do just that, get to water, at least with our words. We will look at the sea, specifically the Massachusetts Atlantic coast, as a source for language, experience, metaphor and inspiration, that temperamental surface under which truth may be revealed. We will consider the sea as our shared biosphere where fishermen grind out a living on dwindling catches, where surfers slip into winter wetsuits to take on Nor’easter swells, where summer sand castles topple with the tide, where lovers hold out for the promise of sunrise. And culling from our intimate relationship with the sea, we will generate and share poems of our own.